A long, long time ago Evan Dando committed it to tape. Not exactly a secret, his struggles with drugs and dependency had threatened to derail a career surprisingly revived via The Lemonheads cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson. Addressing the subject directly during the subsequent 1993 album Come On Feel The Lemonheads, on Style he talked succinctly to his personal dilemma with “Don’t wanna get stoned/But I don’t wanna not get stoned”
Love Chant is the band’s first collection of new material in almost twenty years, with Dando now married, living in Brazil and not it seems taking too much for granted. With old friends like J.Mascis, Juliana Hatfield and Tom Morgan on board there’s less of a solo effort in all but name aesthetic, but in outlook it’s a jumbled effort, with as much dark as light.
A typical outcome you cry. On it the co-write with Morgan Deep End, like the closer Roky, each deal with the guilt of a turbulent past, although in fundamentally different musical ways, whilst The Key of Victory returns to a familiar mode in employing pastoral country inflections. Complicated, yet not, the best moments here are when the singer’s talent for writing ear catching, scuzzy pop come once again to the fore, the title track and In The Margin both helping the listener’s adrenaline flow. Confessions aren’t always worth the paper they’re written on, but Love Chant‘s jigsaw of moods and melodies is truth enough for now.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 
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